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Monday, December 21, 2009

Punish?

I have a problem and have no idea on how to proceed.

You know da Boo, right? She wears glasses.

They're adorable glasses, suit her personality. Because she insists on growing up, she typically gets a new pair of glasses every year when her prescription is updated. Now, if Boo were more like her brother, her glasses wouldn't last as long. We'd be headed to the eye doctor every other week to get something fixed on them or straightened back out or reattached. He snapped the arm off his glasses just last week, actually. He is not careful with them, wears his glasses while wrestling or falls asleep and ends up rolling over them, mangling them terribly.

The typical punishment for leaving your glasses on is no screens for the next day (no tv, computer, or video games). This was instituted mainly for the Boy, because his glasses would fall off, getting lost in his bed and twisted in weird ways, requiring yet another visit to our trusty optician.

But da Boo is much more careful...until recently.

See, da Boo gets a lot from her father, like her need for glasses, her eye color, and her soft blonde hair. But from me she gets a voracious love of reading. She loves reading so much, that lately, she's been falling asleep with her face planted in a book, glasses still in place. Nearly every night for about a month, when I go in to check on the kiddos before I head to bed, I have to take the glasses off her face.

Normally, I wouldn't punish her because really? I frequently fall asleep while reading. However, I don't wear glasses. I know she would be devastated if anything happened to her lovely glasses. So what do I do to protect them but keep her love of reading intact?

I'd revise the rule to "leaving your glasses on" to "causing your glasses to become mangled or broken by either negligence or foolishness." It's not so much leaving them on that's a problem - hence it's hard to punish.

I have no idea. Good luck with that. We have a similar issue at our house, but it doesn't involve glasses. My oldest loves to stay up into the wee hours of the morning reading. The problem? He is a beast for school the next day. How do you nick the problem but not ruin their love of books? I guess that is the question. Let me know if you come up with anything that works.

I do wear glasses and when I wear glasses, they become an extension of me. I don't even think about the fact that I am wearing them. When I read I don't think..."I'm wearing my glasses and this is a good book." I just think, "Wow, this is a great story," Honestly, I don't even KNOW I'm wearing glasses (and I am old and responsible and I have to pay for the glasses myself!). I have fallen asleep with my glasses on many-a-time (you always think you will stay awake). It is different for old folks who wear only READING glasses... but when you are nearsighted, like me .... the glasses ARE YOU. I would encourage and remind, but never punish a child just because they fell asleep with glasses on. And, in the case of a small boy, I would buy insurance to cover the glasses if it were available, and just wait a few years until he was old enough not to be so rough and tumble (it will come). Boys are noise and snakes and snails and puppy-dog tails... through no fault of their own. I would save punishments for other infractions.

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